


Katabasis (Prequel to Star Wars: Command Echelon)

by sand_dollar



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Ben Solo - Freeform, F/M, Kylo Ren - Freeform, Rey - Freeform, Reylo - Freeform, Spoilers, Starwarsriseofskywalker, bensolo - Freeform, kyloren - Freeform, star wars rise of skywalker - Freeform, trosspoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-21
Updated: 2019-12-23
Packaged: 2021-02-26 01:29:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 9,886
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21885265
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sand_dollar/pseuds/sand_dollar
Summary: Taking place after The Rise of Skywalker this story follows some of the main characters.
Relationships: Rey/Ben - Relationship
Comments: 8
Kudos: 49
Collections: TROS Reylo Fix-it Fics





	1. Introduction

**Author's Note:**

> SPOILERS if you haven't seen The Rise of Skywalker then please do not continue. SPOILERS

Hey neighbors!  
SPOILERS!!!! If you haven’t seen The Rise of Skywalker then please do not continue SPOILERS. 

A few things before I start this story. I don’t get to read fan fiction...like at all in nearly a year. A lot of this has to do with my own writing projects and work and keeping up with the fandom. However, I love Ben and Rey so much and I have to write something after seeing TROS. I want to say that I’m here till the end, till I can’t write anymore, till the world freezes over and all I have left is a cave to draw my story on. I’m here and I hope you all will be here with me.

For anyone who has read Novem, thank you. I will be finishing it up and while I do I’ll be posting my new story. With the new story I want to move away from the 500-1000 word count per post to something more in-depth and chapter like, this being said I might not be able to post every week, but know I will strive to do so.

I think the world of the brilliant, talented, incredible people that make up this group. From the podcasts to art, all of it is special and please know what makes this fandom truly memorable are all of you!

“No one’s ever really gone.” -Luke Skywalker


	2. Chapter One The Desert

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Taking place after The Rise of Skywalker this story follows some of the main characters.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> These characters are not mine and belong to the mouse.

Often it was the mildest of chirps that woke Rey up. Never late, but never on time, she’d manage to catch the Tattoine sunrise every morning. Upstairs, either alone or with BB-8, the young woman would perch from a sandstone erupting from her departed master’s old homestead, from there she’d sip tea, eat fresh food purchased from Mos Eisley, and meditate. This morning proved to be one BB-8 wouldn’t join Rey for, which is fine, sometimes Rey liked the lonesome morning to herself especially one following the sudden parting from sleep. That chirp, sometimes a whistle, but always something Rey would play over and over in her head like a lullaby she didn’t want to forget.

With only a shallow puddle of tea leftover in her cup and a full belly welcoming the last drops, Rey brushed over the bruises on her body, the lacerations, and welts. All were healing. Once purple skin began to smooth over with her natural skin tone, most of the cuts, as well, were pink scars, easy to forget with the exception of one.

Rey huffed after her final sip of jogan tea and eased herself into meditation. Mindful always of the cool morning before the desperate heat of the day began its rage on the sandy planet, the young woman let go, if only for a moment, of what bothered her. The chirp, for one, BB-8’s constant check-ins that made her question if her silence was only growing, the soreness that followed her every morning, the image of Palpatine’s face melting in front of her, the falling X-wings over Exegol and the people inside them, the way she touched her lips and how that action drew closely to the way her heart beat. There was a lot to let go of and even more to remember, but somehow when the good memories surfaced there was a lag on her part. She was waiting for the memory she wanted most, for the speck of light in all the off-color dust. Rey didn’t want to admit it, but lately the waiting leaned into meditation, became a tag of promised light constantly spinning until she dizzied herself from concentration.

“That’s enough of that.” Rey muttered and cruised her gaze over the low dunes. A storm was coming. The land had gone still, the breeze departed as if every grain of sand braced for something. Her gaze eventually reached the Millennium Falcon waiting just like her.

“She’ll be fine. The Falcon never met a storm on Jakku she couldn’t deal with.” Again, words spoken only to herself. The question of leaving entered her mind and as she’d done before, Rey let go of the question finding the answer to be one she’d already accepted.

When Rey first arrived on Tattoine, not a single question of how much time she’d be spending here entered her mind and even now when the question did arrive it seemed out of place. Not from her own mind, but from somewhere else. As if to prove to herself she could leave at any time she once woke up in the middle of the night, a layer of cold sweat clinging to her forehead. She dashed from her bed, scattered downstairs to the small courtyard, scaled the stairs to the dome entryway, and burst into a thick night. There! The Millennium Falcon rested on hard sand, waiting. Rey had done this just to see if she could, just to make sure this place didn’t have some unnatural hold on her, but in the moment Rey’s feet touched the Falcon’s metal floor she’d rolled her gaze over her shoulder. The homestead, with decades-old fire damage, broken vaporator, short-circuited power generator, and countless other problems stared back at Rey in the darkness. She couldn’t leave. Not yet. 

Since then Rey managed to fix the generator, of course, that was after a more than arduous journey to Mos Eisley involving a brood of Jawas and several odd looks from the other settlers. Rey told herself she didn’t have time for problems…

“The thing is I do. I have all the time in the galaxy.”

Trilling beeps followed by a pause before more questions, met Rey in the small courtyard.

“Good morning, BB.” Rey smiled and as she’d done the morning before and the morning before that she went to the galley, cleaned her plate and cup, grabbed the tools she’d left out from the night before, and went to work.

“There’s going to be a storm later.” Rey called over the courtyard to BB-8, but the silence bought her attention to her feet. BB-8 was right next to her, had followed her into the galley, and now traced behind her as she went back to work.

“So stay close.” She finished the thought quietly.

Seething heat spewed over the horizon and touched everything. Rey donned her gloves, an old torn sheet she used to cover her face, and a pair of discarded goggles she found in what used to be Luke’s bedroom. Today it was the vaporator, the wiring and broken canisters presented little challenge for Rey. All parts she either found from a junkyard outside of Mos Eisley or from the Falcon. Rey thought fixing the weather probe would be of more importance given Tattoine’s vengeance in the form of pelting sand and high winds, but time and time again her abilities proved more sensitive to the weather than any mechanical unit ever could be. She sensed the quick approaching storm in the same way she sensed the horizon, the expanding desert with nothing for kilometers, and perhaps more.

When the morning passed and the wind picked up turning sand and rock southward, Rey remained with the vaporator even after the small courtyard before her turned to a haze. The world began to go silent, the afternoon insects once buzzing now went still, and far off calls of wild beasts either vanished as the animals moved to safer pasture or were silenced by the wind. BB-8’s calls started from the bedroom but as Rey ignored them the droid, bent on being heard, rolled out to the courtyard and remained beneath the vaporator until she descended.

“All right, all right. That’s enough today.” Rey confessed glancing up at the rusted vaporator older than her, but still claiming some time before it was completely defunct. Suddenly annoyed with the whole idea, Rey tossed off her goggles the moment she entered what functioned as her den. Uncovering her face, BB-8 watched the young woman. The droid wanted to speak, but the overweighing time spent around humans had taught him sometimes words weren’t needed.

Glancing around the small den, at the double recliner she scavenged from an abandoned luxury cruiser to the desk and two fold-up chairs she found in the junkyard, Rey felt a familiar edge dig its way inside her. A weight she couldn’t shake and one that promised to become heavier with every passing moment, but again Rey waited. The memories flooded, thoughts of Finn and Leia, of Chewie too. A fling of her hand and a small lamp illuminated part of the desk, but the same hand turned distracted and instead of returning to Rey’s side if drifted its fingertips to her lips. Balling the offending hand up, Rey tossed herself on the recliner, the one too big for her and turned from the light. Sleep, that was it. Sleep away the storm. Already she could hear BB-8 powering down, the wind picking up, and the final memory made of pure light entered her conscious. Needling pain threaded itself through every part of her. Through the air in her lungs and tears beginning to fall, all the way to the place his palm once rested and finally to her lips again. Sighs weren’t enough to catch her breath, an extra blanket did nothing to convince her she was warm, and for every covered mouth cry there was an equal touch of honesty. Rey swore up and down from here to Jakku, that she could feel a touch of light at her back and then slowly, as if the light felt the same cry as her, it wound around her waist only to rest against her chest. Peace, there it was, but for how long?

Complete darkness save for a blinking light indicating BB-8 was in a powered down phase, met Rey when she woke up.

“The generator?” Rey questioned of the machinery and how well it had stood up to the wind. Flinging her hand, Rey intended for the light to turn back on, but no illumination followed. Throwing herself back down on the recliner, Rey fought the urge to march outside and begin repairs.

“I slept most of the day and it’s not like-,” A chirp, no this time a hum…

Whatever it was it levied itself against the wind becoming the only thing Rey could hear. Outside, perhaps just beyond the entryway, the disturbance began, but soon the soft noise drifted to the courtyard, to just outside the door, and then finally…

Rey’s outstretched hand beckoned for the lightsaber resting on the desk. With the saber ignited it proved nothing to be in the room with her, only BB-8. Silence, only a piercing silence waiting to be filled.

 _Rey_ , a voice whispered. Shuttering at the call, Rey jumped from her bed and swung the lightsaber back and forth, attempting to lend the light to every dark corner of the den, but there was no source she could find. Like air, the voice had filled the room and upon an unseen exhale it escaped. The wind outside burst against the closed door, once again filling the den with a constant chatter of an angry desert.

“It’s gone.” Rey spoke to herself and dimmed her lightsaber. In the darkness, the young woman glanced to her hand holding the hilt, the glint of silver almost visible.

“What do you want from me?” Rey asked no one. Even as she began to play the voice over and over again in her head she couldn’t match it to one she knew, not even the ones in her dreams and nightmares. Gentle, it wasn’t the tone that had caused Rey to react in the way she did, it was the expectation. In the same way she braced for a counterattack during battle, she braced for what this homestead would bring her. Staring at the closed door and leaving her imagination to the brewing madness outside, Rey touched her lips, felt the rugged skin begging for hydration and beyond it her heart pounding away, waiting with her.

Quicker than before, when she’d burst from her bed, Rey grabbed the blanket from the recliner, her goggles, gloves, and to her side attached her lightsaber. She had little hope she’d hear the voice again, that it would guide her, but then again little hope was all she needed.


	3. Chapter Two A Private Myth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Taking place after The Rise of Skywalker this story follows Rey and Ben.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> These are not my characters, they belong to the mouse.

Worse than the snow she’d encountered on Starkiller Base, Rey depended on the Force to move her legs through sand that sucked her down to mid-calf. She’d been through this before, several times in fact, while on Jakku, the only difference this time was she had something stronger than a staff to assist her. She didn’t bother stopping at the top of the homestead and waiting for the voice again, it wasn’t coming and it didn’t matter.

“Whatever direction I go in, I’ll find what I’m waiting for,” Rey promised those words to herself and went southward with the wind, with the danger of an unseen sarlacc and numerous sand vipers just as fearless of the weather as she was. Grains of sand became like small missiles hitting her over and over again, digging beneath her clothing and into her wounds, but still, the woman continued in the darkness with only her determination as a guide. No sky to speak of and indeed no stars or moons, the desert world turned lightless and bleak, but Rey swore there was a light just over the horizon.

The soreness encroached and became like a numbness setting Rey to doubt if she could cross the desert, or even if it were prudent.

“Of course, this isn’t sane.” She spoke behind the cloth covering her mouth. The soreness answered with exhaustion. Gritting her teeth, she grabbed for her lightsaber and once ignited, held it out in front of her for both light and a reprieve from the constant spit of sand. Leaning forward, she marched, one agonizing step at a time. The voice stirred up more than a waiting will inside of Rey, it also brought up old dreams and nightmares. Asleep in her walker with Jakku’s cold night seeping inside, a young Rey heard her named called over the dunes. When she was a very young child, she thought it was her parents, when she learned of ghosts she waited for a cloudy figure to cross the midnight sands, as she grew the voice in her sleep did not leave, but her interpretation of it molded around the life she lived.

On the rare occasion she had more to eat than nothing, Rey would daydream herself into sleep. She’d think of her parents crossing the horizon, coming home to be with her. If Rey were lucky, the daydream would carry over into her sleep and for what felt like a lifetime, she’d live with her mother and father. Rejoice with them in every way she so desperately wanted to.

A lull in the storm brought thicker earth with easier steps and quickened travel. Rey didn’t let up now that her feet were free of the sand’s hold, she took off as if running for her life.

“Ben?” The likes of a voice unheard for so long tickled Ben’s ear. Through closed eyes, he knew himself to be in a place of light, but this wasn’t enough to convince him to open his eyes.

“Ben?” A warm palm accompanied the voice and rested over Ben’s forehead. Gentle, never rushed or demanding of anything, whoever touched him did so in a way a person does a child. Soft laughter parted from the woman and Ben felt his hair brushed to the side.

“Ben, you can wake up.” The woman promised, and Ben wanted to believe her. It couldn’t be so bad after all. He was warm, the bed he rested in was soft and forgiving, a fragrance from childhood lilted through the room, and at his ears, there was only the woman’s voice and nothing else. Parting with the remaining darkness afforded to him by closed eyes, Ben peered up from his bed to find familiar eyes to go with the familiar voice. Locks of hair bound up, but somehow still flowing graced the woman’s head, as did the kindest eyes Ben had ever seen, and there it was, a fresh smile the woman had saved just for him.

Air left Ben’s lips as he tried to form words, but it was all lost to him.

“I’ve heard you before, in my dreams.” Ben sat up slowly to find himself in a circular room, one warm as the heart, clean, but mostly unfurnished. Windows surrounded the room and beyond them a light so reaching Ben could feel it inside him.

“Cloud City?” Ben remarked and the woman smiled again.

“That’s what your grandfather said when he arrived here.” The woman tilted her head, unable to look away from Ben.

“You knew my grandfather?” Ben asked, and the woman nodded. She wasn’t old, Ben realized, no older than he was in fact, but still those eyes were all too familiar and at the mention of his grandfather they light up almost brighter than the encompassing cradle of illumination outside.

“I know your grandfather.” She took a seat next to Ben, her long gown flowing like water with bright dots like stars adorning every wave.

“He is brave, just like you. Kind, generous, forgiving, also just like you.” Ben wanted to smile, it seemed like the thing he should want, but her words weren’t ones he was used to hearing.

“I’m not any of that.”

“And why not?” The woman questioned.

“I…” He began, but words escaped him. It seemed impossible for him to speak of the things he’d done, of the lives taken by his actions, and the pain he doled out. To say those things to someone so brilliant in the light would be a travesty, a downright disgust, and for the life of him, Ben was incapable of speaking. The woman leaned forward, her eyes unblinking, and took Ben’s hand.

“I bet you’re more like your grandfather than you give yourself credit for.” She stood with Ben’s hand in her own, asking the man to come with her. Ben stood, bracing himself for the pain the came with falling. His back and legs, the many lacerations, but he felt no such pain. Touching the place where he knew there to be a deep wound, he found only perfect skin.

“Where am I?” Ben looked over his shoulder, tried to glance out of a window, but there was nothing to tell him of the place he was in.

“It’s not where you are Ben, it’s where you’re going.” The woman let go of his hand and lead the way. Beyond the room were hallways shinning of sunlight and gold, massive was this place, but never in a way that made the residents believe themselves lost or too small. Paintings, statues, even relics pleasing to the eyes were at every step. The high ceiling boasted of glimmering depictions of men and women and memories thought to be forgotten.

“Where’s Rey? Is she okay?” Ben asked the woman after several moments in silence.

“Rey.” The woman placed the name like a crown upon her lips.

“She’s just fine, Ben. You’ll see her soon.”

“Who are you? You sound like my mother.”

“Ben!” A youthful voice called out from down the hallway. At first, it was hard to see through so much light, but when accustomed Ben found the form waiting for him to be the source. A beam of brilliance touching every wall and gracing every face.

“Mom?” Ben mouthed her name and ran for the woman racing for him. She was warm like she’d never been before and whole in ways he’d never known. Not a worry or concern, just love and arms to hold him tight. She encircled his neck and he her waist. Picking her up as he had done when he’d returned with his uncle from some long excursion, he heard the familiar gasp of his mother when she realized her feet were far from the ground.

“Ben.” She whispered his name and dove her hands into his hair. Pulling back, Leia looked into her son’s eyes. The pain, the voices, and all the rage were gone, wiped away like vapor. His mother looked so young, not entirely in the way of age, but in the way devoid of war and loss.

“My son. I am so proud of you.” She said it again and again, until she felt it take root in Ben. Leia took her son’s hand and feeling the weight she paused.

“There is so much I want to show you, but I know your time is limited.”

“Where am I?”

“You’re in the place the Force takes us to. When you meditate or feel yourself fully enveloped, you’re just more present then you’ve ever been before.”

“The woman mentioned my grandfather, is he here?” Ben asked, unsure of what it meant.

“Yes.”

“And dad?”

“Yes, and Luke and everyone.” Leia saw the confusion cross her son’s face. Not mistrust, not the look of a child who’d been misled, but the look of someone so unsure of what it meant to be standing in a place like this. That gentle hand, the same one made clean of the war once etched there, caressed her son. Nodding her head back to the other woman, the one who’d greeted Ben when he woke up, Leia spoke quietly in a whisper.

“That’s your grandmother, Padme Amidala, Anakin Skywalker’s wife, and waiting for you down the hall are my parents, Bail and Breha Organa.” Ben pulled back, almost removing his hand from his mother’s. Remorse, agony, guilt, and then a level of regret threatening to scar the very skin holding it inside his body crossed over the man’s face. Ben felt a levy give way, tears touched his cheeks, and then his neck, but even then the warmth never left.

“I don’t deserve…” Ben looked from his mother to grandmother.

“…any of this. Your forgiveness, your kindness, all of it I am unworthy of.” Ben’s words ran out, like the urge to carry on.

“No, Ben. You see all of this.” Padme swept the air and light scattered everywhere.

“You are this, and when the time comes, you return here. You return to us.” Padme watched her grandson and how her words did nothing to convince him of all the light surrounding him and inside of him.

“Did you save her?” Padme smiled at the thought of the young Jedi, her strength and forgiveness. Ben didn’t answer.

“You did. Ben, you saved Rey. You brought her back to life.” Ben glanced down the hall and saw two faces, a man and woman, staring at him intently. With every step made closer to the couple, they smiled more, overjoyed at the sight of Ben Solo. It was Breha first who embraced her only grandson followed by Bail, their whispers and calls unlike anything Ben knew to be real. Was this meant to be his life? Not a childhood of nightmares and ceaseless voices egging him on, but one of countless stories promised to him by two people who loved him more than he would ever know.

“We spoke to you every night,” Breha whispered.

“You never heard us, but please believe me. We were there.” The woman seemed to be asking for forgiveness and Ben found himself willing to do anything to appease her.

“I believe you.”

“Please, Ben, sit with us while we wait.” Bail asked and Ben accepted a request long overdue.

“Who are we waiting for?” Ben asked.

“The others.” Padme glanced over her shoulder as if they’d appear out of thin air.

“Your father and uncle, your grandfather as well.”

“But we have time. We have so much time, please Ben. Tell us everything.” Breha laughed and by her voice alone the hallway hummed with music so full and forgiving.


	4. Chapter Three The First Sin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Taking place after The Rise of Skywalker, this story follows Rey and Ben.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> These characters don't belong to me, they belong to the mouse.

Rey stumbled forward with an ever-growing pair of tired legs. She’d fallen several times and gotten up again and again, just like she did now. The storm ceased long ago, what felt like a decade. A grey sky above promised clouds and sunless paths, but still the young woman continued forward strung along by the desire to get where she needed to be. Ascending a small dune, Rey paused when she heard a far off cry, not the voice, but someone in peril. She dropped to the ground, removed her goggles and the cloth covering her face. Crawling up the dune, she managed to tilt her gaze over the sand to find a village.

“Tusken Raiders.” She said under her breath.

“Lots of them.”

The voice cried out again. It was a human voice. Huffing, Rey continued her crawl along the dune, stopping at some points to see if she’d been sighted. At the outer most part of the village, she waited for the cry. It grew weaker with every call. A hurried response ushered Rey into the village without being sighted, until…

A gurgle of a language Rey didn’t know bombarded from behind her. She turned, the screams got louder as if whoever was in trouble knew a rescuer was close by. Pulling her lightsaber, Rey prepared to strike, even raised her mighty blade to break down upon the next Tusken Raider who came too close, but she paused. That was no adult Tusken Raider, it was an adolescent, a near child. The young one rushed Rey and she struck back while others crowded her with fierce words and weapons at the ready. She spun with the lightsaber in hand and called out to the voice.

“Where are you?” No answer, just a constant scream of pain and agony. Enraged, Rey swung out and struck a Tusken Raider who responded with cries of her own, she was a mother. Rey felt the fear in the mother, the near dread that this stranger would do harm to her family. Putting her weapon back on her hip, Rey raised her hands, but this seemed to do nothing for the Tusken Raiders who continued to aggress. Breathing deeply, taking in the fear surrounding her, Rey promised in ways she hoped would be understood that she wasn’t a threat. Closing her eyes, Rey stepped forward and the crowd stepped back. Another step forward followed by a handful more and Rey was just outside the tent where the screams came from. Pulling back the flap of cloth revealed nothing, just wind. The tent disappeared, blew away into nothingness as did the village and its occupants.

_Time is effortless in this place_ , Ben thought. His family around him, their voices so clear, and joy graceful. _How long has it been_? He asked himself and found the answer to be useless in a place like this. At the end of another story, Padme touched Ben’s shoulder and smiled towards two approaching figures, both younger than Ben had ever known them to be. His father, Han Solo, spry with a saunter he never lost even into his old age. Luke, as well, carried with him a grace only a Jedi could have. Ben half expected Luke to call him over and request he spar with him, not out of practice, but play. This was a Luke more engaged with wonder and knowing, as if he’d figured it all out and wanted to spend the rest of eternity with the people he loved most. On his feet, Ben met his father half-way, that scoundrel’s smile moored in love and pride. Glancing over his son, Han shrugged away his hesitation and pulled Ben in for a hug.

“Long time, no see, Kid.” Laughing at his own words, Han held Ben closer.

“I am so proud of you. You really did it, didn’t you?” Ben didn’t understand.

“Did what?”

“You came back.” Han pulled away and tilted his gaze into his son’s.

“You came back from it all.” A grin, like Han had just seen the most impressive act before his eyes. Luke gripped his nephew’s shoulder and leaned in.

“Selfless love, Ben. That’s what this is all about.” Luke dropped his smile and replaced it with curiosity.

“Are you ready to meet him?” Luke asked, and for the first time, Ben knew what someone was talking about.

“I know you think you spoke to him, but it was someone else. This time it’s the real thing. No more voices in your head, just you and him.” Luke didn’t need to promise anything, not a single thing.

Together Luke and Ben embarked into the light, passing murals made of music and dancing. This place, where ever it was, held all the light and everything that touched the galaxy seemed to be just a reflection of this place.

“Obi-Wan sends his welcome. He won’t be able to meet you now, but maybe later.”

“Where is he?” At the question, Luke chuckled to himself.

“I’m sure you’ll hear about it later.” At a window looking out into what Ben could only dream to see, Anakin Skywalker stood with his mother, Shmi, next to him. Robes made of sun and body completely healed, Anakin turned to his grandson and breathed a greeting. Ben realized then, it truly had never been the voice of his grandfather in his head. Never, not once. A frown pierced Anakin’s face, and he reached for Ben’s cheek, the side once scared by a lightsaber. Ben and Anakin prepared to speak at the same time and both went quiet, willing the other to speak first.

“Go ahead, Ben.” Anakin’s voice resounded with pride.

“Why, grandfather, please tell me why you couldn’t correct me. Just a single vision of you would have been enough.”

In a sigh wrought by timeless pain, sins too many, and anger Anakin embraced Ben. There it was, the choices and mistakes, the pure failures and loss, so much loss, but also love and endearing brotherhood. It was a seal Anakin placed upon Ben’s soul, a promise of light and fortitude, a hefty presence in the Force never leaving.

“If I came to you then, now would never happen.”

“And now needed to happen.” Tears welled in the man’s eyes, and when they fell onto his cheek it was Ben who wiped them away. The woman next to him with hair long as Leia’s beamed with gratitude, her scars and mark of the salve long healed and forgotten in the Force.

“We all exist in you Ben Solo. When you leave here, don’t forget that.” 


	5. Chapter Four The Second Sin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Taking place after The Rise of Skywalker, this story follows Rey and Ben.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> These characters don't belong to me, they belong to the mouse.

Rey stared at her hands, waiting for them to disappear with the rest of the village. Dirt under nails, old scars from years of climbing broken metal, and grooves forming her fingerprints, but no sign she’d blow away with the rest of the world. The sky grey and world beneath flat and calm as water, Rey felt she was no longer on Tatooine.

“Where am I?” No answer, not in the Force, not from anywhere. She didn’t wait to get her bearings; instead she continued in the direction she’d gone before.

“Will it always be a challenge not to hate?” Rey considered the now vanished Tusken Raiders, she was so close to destroying all of them. That scream, perhaps from a woman, was riveting in the Force. Whoever she had been, whoever this place made Rey believe she was, the woman was in terrible pain, and Rey was willing to burn an entire village for her. Was it genuinely hate if it meant saving someone else?

“Intention matters.” Rey corrected herself. It mattered how she felt about the person she was fighting. It had always been that way when it came to Kylo Ren. At times when she confronted the fallen Jedi turned Supreme Leader, it felt like all the darkness was below her feet, preparing to swallow her whole. One wrong move, one misplaced thread of intention and that was it, she’d belong to the darkness forever. Compared to the waiting, every fight with him seemed so easy now.

The flatlands and all their dim givings relented to a final dune with a daring glow behind it. Rey reached the dune and at its top, found a world in ruins below. Demented fire, billowing smoke, and rivers of lava cascaded through this world. Heat grasped Rey and refused to let go. Pungent odors worse than the bodies of decaying animals came with every inhale. A heart tripping over the memories of war, of fallen friends, and unforgiving enemies screamed in Rey’s ear; this was no place for the living. In response, Rey noticed flecks of resentment, even of fear rearing inside her. This place boiled over in hate and if she wasn’t careful she’d be sure to catch it like a disease.

“Hello.” A man’s voice called from behind Rey. Unsurprised, Rey turned to meet the man’s gaze. Older than her, with a beard, and hair to just above his shoulders, he wore robes light in color but dusted over in black soot.

“Who are you?” She’d heard the man’s voice before.

“Why, I’m a Jedi, like you.” The man smiled warmly, his hands on his hips and eyes telling a story Rey wasn’t privy to.

“What’s your name?” Rey asked.

“Obi-Wan, but I was known as Old Ben for a long time.” The answer, while heard by Rey, seemed not to touch upon the woman. She went still, bracing for more she’d be unable to understand. To this, Obi-Wan’s smile faded, the story in his eyes gave way to pain.

“I’ve lost people I love, too.” He walked closer to Rey.

“I’ll tell you a secret?” Obi-Wan said and when Rey didn’t respond, he continued in hopes in might wake the woman from her tired agony.

“Not everyone we lose is gone.” Obi-Wan, for all his age and hold in the Force, felt the young Jedi’s heart twist in ways a mortal’s shouldn’t. When she looked to Obi-Wan, the tears were there along with a story so similar to his.

“It’s a cruel joke.” She spit the words out.

“I’ve lost my parents,” Rey began, welling first with pain and then with a fire, not even Mustafar could compare with.

“And they loved me, they loved me so much.” Rey chewed over the anger, and when it was too much, she gave way to more words coated in violence.

“And I have these powers, but what good are they if they can’t even heal my own pain?” As if trying again, Rey placed a hand over her heart, and when the pain didn’t go away it doubled. Trying to catch her breath, Rey thought of Ben and their last moments.

“And then I met _him_ , and I can’t stop thinking about him. I couldn’t stop thinking about him then and I can’t now. I was foolish, and so was he. If he hadn’t been seduced by the dark side, if Palpatine had never entered his mind, if he’d been able to have the life intended for him…” Rey paused when the past’s weight threatened to take her forever. 

“Then maybe we’d be together right now.”

The old Jedi and his stories, both painful and rejoicing, remembered a time when he thought the same of his very best friend. It didn’t really matter how much time passed between the moment Anakin left him and turned into Vader, it could have been yesterday for all Obi-Wan knew.

“From where I am, I can’t tell you in a way that’ll make you believe, but all of this will go away. You’re in the downfall now, the place of uprising, and light not so far away. If you keep going-“

“I don’t want to!” Rey yelled across the fire.

“I don’t want any of this!” Boiled over, the woman grabbed for her lightsaber and charged the old Jedi, who in turn, removed his lightsaber and reciprocated. The dual began with clashes of light and from the sky, a storm raged. With fire falling from the heavens, Rey unleashed every bit of herself on the Jedi. Faster, with her blade turning into a blur, she managed to kick Obi-Wan back and watch him roll down an ash-filled hill. Jumping forward and landing so that she was over the man, Rey held her lightsaber high above and prepared to drive it into the Jedi. Rey watched the yellow of her saber bleed into orange and finally piercing red, it was so easy to continue, to cut down the Jedi before her.

“No.” The word shook the earth, and between Obi-Wan and Rey a valley formed, pulling them apart, and ending the battle. The rivers of lava subsided, draining into nothing but blackness, the fires burned out, the smoke rose to the unknown, and all was a cooling simmer. The world turned to ash as Rey dropped to her knees and with closed eyes, she felt for the Jedi.

“If you keep going, you’ll find the unity you seek.” Obi-Wan’s words flowed in the air, danced across the earth, and when Rey opened her eyes it was to a verdant breath of fresh and everlasting beauty. From where she’d fallen to the horizon and beyond was bounty and meadows, flying birds and clear rivers.

“There is more for you to see.” A quite phrase on Ben’s ear as his mother took him by the hand.

“More for you to learn.” Shmi added.

“I don’t understand.” The man looked to all who he’d just met, the people he’d heard stories of, and those known to him only through feelings.

“We’re not the only ones here.” Anakin answered, bowing his head Anakin guided Ben through the light and with each step came memories from every present relative. Not ones of battle, but of joy and all the people worth fighting for, and saving. It all seemed so terrifying then, the act of marriage between Padme and Anakin, the sight of fire coming to end all of Alderaan, leaving a homestead and everything once known, joining a rebellion with nothing more than a best friend, a vessel, pluck, and a blaster. There was more, as well, births and reunions, celebrations thought to be the last of their kind, and voices of comfort. It all rained down on Ben Solo, and he collected every memory, held it up the unending light, and in the reflection found himself.

Anakin passed over a threshold and turned to find his grandson unwilling to follow, either wrapped up in memory or perhaps a bit nervous.

“There’s nothing to fear in this place, Ben.”

One step in the right direction was all it took to enter this place; a dome room with empty seats filling fast as mist over a morning lake. They stood at Ben’s appearance, their robes glistening like rain and presence in full regard of the life before them. Master Yoda, Master Qui-Gon Jinn, Master Mace Windu, Ahsoka Tano, Kanan Jarrus, Lor San Tekka, a man Ben didn’t know but felt in the Force to be close to him, and more. On their faces etched lifetimes of repeated loss and battles, but also unending joy and kindness. They did not see Ben as he was now, a saved man, but as he always was in his entirety. They saw the heart beating below a man made monster who dragged himself from the bottom and reclaimed his life all the while knowing it was a gift to someone else that he gave freely and without condition. They saw every nightmare, heard every voice, felt every fight, and what a fight it was against the darkness.

“Mine, the honor is.” A fluid voice spoke first from a several hundred years younger Master Yoda.

“Ben Solo, you are, and redeemed you’ve become.” Master Yoda chuckled at Ben’s bemused response.

“Not so easy, is it?” Anakin spoke with a smile, still unused to hearing those words himself.

“Easy, it won’t be.” A comfort passed over Master Yoda, something Ben could feel from now into eternity if he searches for it.

“Your return will mean more than what can be understood,” Luke warned Ben, but it felt less like a warning and more like a story, Ben’s story.

“There is much to do, and you may find there are not many able to follow the path you belong to.” Anakin continued where Luke left off.

“You’re asking me to pick up where you all left off.” Not a question, Ben felt every life in this room, every story, every heartbeat, and where it leads. This wasn’t a single journey, Rey was already on her path, but now it was time for her to be joined.

“Free every slave you come across.” Shmi Skywalker’s voice lilted through the room as if by her words alone there would be no more pain.

“Reestablish the Church of the Force on Jakku.” Lor San Tekka spoke next, his cadence a promise strung in the Force.

“Go back to the Jedi Temple and bury the students lost there.” Not a note of anger, just understanding came from Luke’s request.

“Let not a single person of the once Alderaan go astray, they are your people.” Bail requested.

“Remember the life debt. For Chewbacca, for all of Kashyyyk.” Han bowed his head, still put off by speaking in front of so many, but willing to do it for the right reason.

“My daughter, give her the life my wife and I couldn’t.” _Rey’s father,_ Ben thought.

“Tell Rey we love her.” The man spoke and sounded nothing like his father, in fact the very opposite. 

“There is more, young Solo.” Master Yoda stepped forward, no cane needed.

“Many temptations, there are.”

“The darkness will always be present, between here and there.” Luke warned.

“The galaxy’s judgment with threaten you and those you love, but you must show understanding and compassion,” Leia concluded.

Ben looked to every face, every request, before ending on the eyes of his mother and father. It would be a long time before he saw them again.

“I will release every slave I come across, I will reestablish the Church of the Force, I will not let a child of Alderaan become lost, and I will uphold the life debt…” Ben locked eyes with Rey’s father and swore with his last breath to fulfill his request.

“I’ll give Rey every part of me.” Their warm embrace in the Force was the last Ben saw of those around him. Like vapor, they left one by one, until only his parents and Luke remained.

“We love you Ben.” The light subsided, the knowing warmth drifted from him, and the son set himself into a sleep made for rebirth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not gonna lie, I've cried way too much the past few days, but I'm getting better.


	6. Chapter Five The Third Sin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Taking place after The Rise of Skywalker this story follows Rey and Ben.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> These are not my characters, they belong to the mouse.

Steadying herself against a tree, Rey found her footing among a sea of grass. The lava and fire gone, all that remained was an expanse she’d never seen. A sky of white rolling above with the occasional escape of sunlight danced across the vista. Beautiful? Yes, but none of it pressed upon Rey. She might as well have been looking at a Jakku junkyard. Taking up her journey once more, Rey crossed the grass until the tree behind her became but a dot. The ash from her battle with Obi-Wan dusted from her clothing, and like the world that they fought on it vanished.

“Where ever I am, I’m not far.” Rey considered her unbridled anger, how it raged against her despite the fact she didn’t hate Obi-Wan.

“He was patient with me, like a teacher.”

 _Was it all a lesson? A test?_ Rey thought. A light breeze carrying soft smells and a welcomed tiding passed Rey, biding her to follow. A tumbling hill of grass and flowers waved with the breeze as if pointing Rey where she needed to go next; up the hill. Pausing at the base of the hill, Rey looked over her shoulder. If she were to turn back and return to Tatooine, it would be her own choice. Nothing, not the Force or any practitioner of it, would prevent her return. Turning away from the hill, her feet pointed where the Tatooine homestead would be. Rey wanted to rest, but the urgent idea that what lay behind her would all disappear if she stepped from it entered her mind.

“My war is over, and there’s nothing else for me,” Rey confessed to the breeze and it picked up, urging her to ascend the hill. A waiting hold in the Force begged to differ. Something within Rey, something that had always been there bent towards her heart, showing a future promised to her. With gritted teeth, the young woman climbed the hill far more angled than the ones before it. Hands digging into the ground to keep her balance, Rey forced herself forward until she reached the precipice. The same beauty, but this time with a dot of a homestead. Out of a young and wild curiosity, Rey raced down the hill, her feet moving faster then she thought them capable of. Appearing from the homestead, from the large tent stretched over the beautiful earth, a woman appeared. Dark hair tied back and cupping her mouth, she called for Rey, a summon.

“Mom?” Rey stopped and took note of the woman, her stature and gentle way.

“Mom!” Rey took up her speed, all the while calling to the woman who regarded her with the kindest smile and open arms.

“Rey, I’ve been waiting for you.” The woman whispered into her daughter’s ear. Arms around each other, Rey begged the Force never to let this moment end.

 _This is it. This is why I’ve been called out here_ , Rey thought. The woman looked Rey over, proud of everything she saw. Touching her daughter’s cheek, she brushed Rey’s tears away.

“Don’t you cry,” A smile all too familiar, but still so far away swept across the woman’s face. Holding her hands, Rey wished to remain here, to never leave, but even in that thought, she began to understand why that couldn’t happen.

“This is no place for me?” Rey questioned, and her mother kissed her on the cheek.

“Your place, as unshakable as it is, doesn’t exist here.”

“Then why bring me here?” The question left Rey, but the answer had been clear all along.

“Ben.” That name and the gust of wind that came with it were the first things to cause Rey to look beyond the horizon. Rey’s mother watched her daughter, the building joy, and rushing captivation, her daughter, the survivor and Jedi, the hero made warrior, wouldn’t just be fine in the harsh galaxy, she would be light that others would follow.

“I don’t want to leave you.” Rey confessed, but already the young woman knew her path was building, knew that Ben was close.

“I’m with you always, Rey.” Kissing her one last time, Rey let go of her mother and walked for the horizon, for the setting sun, and the coming darkness.

“Your father and I loved you more than anything in this galaxy or the next holds.” A whisper, but one so clear and deep.

In a flash, almost like lightning, Ben awoke to find himself on a crushed land, before a throne never used and a place full of darkness. An unrelenting idea pushed into his head that perhaps all he’d experienced was nothing, just a lie.

 _No, that’s a lie. I did see my family, and I will hold faithful to what they asked_ , Ben affirmed.

Moving the slightest rushed pain into every fiber of Ben’s being. His leg shattered, his back lacerated, he bled like he were a river, but in the Force, Ben found what he was looking for. A thread, something endearing and present, Ben latched onto the thread and so found life brimming into him. In gasps, the man pulled forth, walked where he could, but otherwise stumbled forward from the place he’d died. A grueling task of catching his breath and not letting the pain turn him to ways he’d used before. As a passing breeze, Ben let the light show him the way and indeed being lost in the dark made the light so much stronger. Through the crag he’d entered before, Ben used the wall to hold him up as he went forward. On the other side of the crag, Ben fell to the ground again and dragged himself to the place where the only light touched Exegol. The darkness faded in waves and like a hum from a breeze passing between two place,s Ben found what he was looking for.


	7. Chapter Six Reunion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Taking place after The Rise of Skywalker this story follows Rey and Ben.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> These characters don't belong to me, they belong to the mouse.

Beyond the field, a place outstretched before Rey, rocky with black stones, but bustling with viridescent life. A valley descending into the unknown with only mist rising to signify there was something far below the earth Rey stood on. She’d hadn’t yet let herself believe there was more to this place, in other words she saw the valley only as a passage and not the place she was meant to be at that moment. As far as Ben was concerned, Rey knew him to be a part of her. In a scheme of denial on her part and rage on his, Rey managed to sweep away so much when it came to Ben. It was a tempting game, the kind that attracted fate and destiny and all the otherworldly players set on showing mortals what was truly within their control. In the beginning, it was easy for Rey to call the Force cruel just as it was easy to raise a lightsaber to Kylo Ren, but even in her brilliant indignation, Rey noticed the man opposed to the monster. She saw Ben in all his anguish, in his stubborn footing, and his recalled trauma that he was never free from.

Without knowing it and certainly without accepting it, Rey had always searched night and day for the pockets of light Ben peeked out from. Ben was there all along, held back by a web created by a true monster. That night around the fire, when she extended her hand and he followed, it was the first time Rey bloomed into the notion of miracles. Rey wished for the impossible in her parents, but with Ben it was different. That harsh voice in his head for so long, the misunderstandings between him and his family, the long-awaited fall, it rolled like a wave over a dark ocean and when it met land, it took all of the earth with it. Ben struggled against the darkness and that alone was a miracle, so when Kylo Ren turned to her and together they fought against Snoke, there was another miracle to be counted. After all that, Rey begged for a final miracle, little did she know she’d have to wait for it.

Still, in the end, with Ben’s gift of life so brazen within her, it was a miracle Rey found undeclared. A silent pass touching every part of her, unspoken and sacred in ways that made the universe blush. Rey considered her bond with Ben, its jolts and stir, the way it connected without fail and boomed into her life and his like a newly born. The Force willed them together, but that wasn’t why Rey took his hand.

“Why did I take his hand?” That question bogged down by dying and living, hadn’t bubbled up before. That kiss should be answer enough, but with the Force, there were always new layers to considered.

A shaken smile drifted over Rey’s lips. Something fledged and growing rapidly spread through her, not for the first time in regards to Ben, but for the first time she accepted it.

What would appear to be worlds away, but was really not so far, Ben grappled from his place on the ground. In short bursts of hope mixed with something eternal, Ben pulled away from Exegol, abandoned the place of darkness. He found soft earth beyond the strange place and from there, stared out at the horizon. More light and with it the knowledge that Rey was close by. A smile, the kind so new to him.

 _She’s a constant in all of this_ , Ben told himself.

The unspoken voice, the light he’d always known, the girl, the scavenger, the Jedi, and so much more. A lifetime of refined suffering finally ended in love.

“I’m such a fool.” Ben shook his head, his smile still present. Rey, when Ben first met her on Takodana, had the spite of the desert and venom of a feral coursing through her, and for him he couldn’t help but admire every bit of it. The admiration was called out by Snoke, sensed by Hux, and made a toy by Palpatine, but for him, it was the only pleasant call he’d ever experienced. Not threatening, not demanding, not conditional, just simple and natural as breathing. The hardest part of love, Ben mused, was never knowing. He thought from time to time he saw it in Rey, saw her compassion for him, but again the voices never let him believe his own admission, until that night around the fire.

Ben glanced to his fingertips, willing to wager every star that her warmth was still there. That bond, the string tossed through time and space somehow holding him and Rey together, became the only web he consented to. Delicate, unending, robust, and cradling, the connection and the woman at the other end became the only fight he’d ever been willing to lose to. If the connection was any hint to what the Force had intended for Ben and Rey, then Ben’s willingness to forfeit his life was the solidifying act and Rey’s resurrection was the miracle, the light he’d always known. As for the kiss…

Ben laughed at himself before a row of thunder interrupted his thoughts. Despite the promised sunrise, there would be rain, but it would pass. Again leaning forward, Ben hoisted himself toward the horizon, towards Rey, and whatever life there would be between them.

Not slowed, but growing in her exhaustion, Rey kept her glance to the ground and concentration on the unseen path. The sunset did little to hinder her, but the layer of darkness added to the fatigue she ignored. The uplift of a breeze and sudden scent of far of shores and water for miles made Rey think that perhaps Ahch-To was close by, somehow. Lifting her gaze to the horizon she found no unending shore, no crashing waves, but instead the steady form of one. Outlined by a light either he held with him or one that followed him, the stature collected itself as if catching sight of Rey. Slowly, with burden and agony, the figure came to his feet. Slant to one side, the man looked on to Rey.

A sob broke from the woman, her cold hands clasped her mouth, and at once she drove herself forward either into madness or love or both, she was ready for it all. At a skip away from the man, Rey paused.

 _Is it really him_? A hush ran over the two, and like fire from a burning star the connection sizzled and consumed, delved deeper than before, and brought to the light more than either could ever count.

“Ben?” The same question from before and with the same soul-touching answer. It was him and this time he wasn’t leaving. Ben opened his arms, his wound still bleeding, and limp palpable in the Force. Gently, as if he’d disappear again, Rey encircled his waist, buried her head in his chest, and heard his heart beating madly. She wished her cries weren’t the sort to be heard, but that was an impossibility in front of him. As if seeing her wounds, the kind that never touches skin, and sensing who’d she’d met along the way, and what it meant to leave that person, Ben cried with her. Unable to bear not seeing his face any longer, Rey looked up, and caught a gaze she dare not break from for the rest of her life and beyond. Their adjoined sufferings spoke of stories from there to here and finding the ethereal tale to be one of both anguish and amusement, Ben smiled for the things to come.

“What did you see?” Rey whispered of the rarity on Ben’s lips.

“The light.” In response, Rey placed her hand over the wound on Ben’s abdomen, but the man took her hand instead and shook his head.

“I want these wounds to be a part of me, not erased.” Thinking of her scar, the one earned during the battle in Snoke’s throne room, Rey nodded. The gaze held until a distraction took hold and reminded Rey of the plenary way Ben’s lips matched hers. Slower than before, with time to spend and forever to consider, Ben leaned in and caught Rey’s lips. Tastes of rolling nights, boundless warmth, eternal surrender, caressed soothe, and silent bliss exchanged between the two and if one side of the party weren’t wounded and the other not exhausted then more would have been promised sooner.

“Which way is home?” Ben asked, and Rey adopted the same courage she had once before. Placing herself under Ben’s arm she guided him, kept him close, and offered as much of her strength as she could. The hill before them cursed a struggle, but none too confident. At the face of the hill, the once rainy night of swaying grass and low flying birds gave way to flatlands and sand. The sworn light of two rising suns could be seen and there before the two, not so close, but certainly not so far away was the homestead and BB-8 rolling faster and faster to greet them.

A long trill of beeps and gasps, only a droid was capable told Rey she’d been gone the night and was just now returning after the storm. The absence was too long for the droid and made his sentiment known.

“Is that how long I was gone?” The woman questioned with a joke caught somewhere in her throat. The droid responded with questions, ones of the man and of the places Rey had been.

“This is Ben Solo.” A high whistle from the droid, he remembered all too well who Ben was. In silence, the droid roved his ocular lens over the man, taking in his measure, his wounds, his nature, and finding the truth to be one balanced between Rey’s trust in Ben and her willingness to half-carry him home, BB-8 asked Rey what he could.

“Get the bandaging from the Falcon, and I think there’s a bacta bomb somewhere under the recliner.” In a rush, the droid took off.

“BB-8!” Rey called, and the droid skidded to a stop.

“Don’t you dare tell Poe about this.” A quick affirmation, as if the idea of such a gesture were silly to the droid.

“We’re both a secret, for now.” Rey said to Ben.

“You’re a Palpatine, I’m the ex-Supreme Leader, but I think there’s more to it than that.” Rey cocked her head at the man, questioning what could more severe than her lineage and his previous job.

“This galaxy doesn’t need us put away and silent. Eventually, I’ll have to leave.” Rey didn’t waste a moment in her response.

“And I’ll be with you when you do.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for every view and kudo! You all are amazing and it means so much you checked this story out. Star Wars: Command Echelon will be out soon. The outline is done and the first chapter is almost done, so soon! Please, during this holiday season stay safe out there and enjoy the season.


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